A.M. ATL: Beluga society

Morning, y’all! We’re relatively used to the heat here in Georgia, so you have to feel for people in other parts of the world dealing with unusually oppressive temperatures.

Japan has even coined a new weather category to describe the current swelter in Asia: kokusho-bi — or “cruelly hot day.”

Let’s get to it.

GEORGIA POWER’S DATA CENTER DEAL RAISES EYEBROWS

Georgia Power has been criticized for accommodating data center needs despite customer concern. (Jason Getz/AJC)

Another day, another data center controversy to add to the ever-growing heap. Soon, we’ll need a data center-sized warehouse to store them.

Georgia Power has agreed to serve the controversial $20 billion OpenAI data center planned near Savannah, and so far, the deal isn’t charming state regulators.

• The project itself has drawn ire for its size (expected to cover hundreds of acres), its power usage (predicted to be the single-largest electricity user in the state) and the secrecy with which it was introduced to a less-than-enthused local populace.
• Democratic members of the Public Service Commission, the state’s energy regulator, say the contract is risky for Georgia’s residential customers. 
• The PSC has been reviewing Georgia Power’s deal with OpenAI since July, and can object to terms that don’t “adequately protect existing customers from bearing any of the costs” of adding a large-load customer.
• The PSC’s staff has until Aug. 26 to complete its contract review, and Georgia Power can negotiate. But the PSC’s leader says the company needs to agree to changes or the group will object.

🔎 READ MORE: Your latest data center deep dive

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THE AFTERLIFE OF AN ATHENS LANDMARK

Sparks of life in a dead mall: The Boys & Girls Club has turned one part of Georgia Square Mall into a space to help local youths develop skills and find jobs. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)

In the latter days of the Shopping Mall Era, the Georgia Square Mall was a jewel of Athens commerce.

Sharing the fate of so many palatial cathedrals of consumerism, it is now a husk of its former self. Only about 15 of the mall’s more than 100 retail spaces are occupied.

Last week, another blow: Developers announced a nine-figure attempt to revive the complex has fallen flat.

• The ambitious redevelopment plan, approved in 2023, had a price tag of $660 million and called for more than 1,200 housing units, 70,000 square feet of commercial space and other amenities.
• However, complications with zoning laws and funding led to a fizzle.
• County officials are now considering loosening zoning restrictions, but it will be a long time before questions about the mall’s fate have concrete answers.

🔎 READ MORE: Until then, residents show how they still find community in a dead mall

DEKALB TO PAY MILLIONS TO CHARTER SCHOOLS

The DeKalb County School District will pay $29.5 million to seven charter schools that won a lawsuit accusing the district of withholding funding.

• A judge ruled in 2022 that the district improperly withheld state and federal funding, including docking schools for an “administrative fee” without providing any administrative services.
• Charter schools are public schools and receive public funding, but they are privately operated under district oversight.
• State law requires districts fund charter schools “no less favorably” than other schools.

🔎 READ MORE: Which charter schools are getting the funds now

MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS

🐘 Rick Jackson recently floated a two-word possibility that won’t win him much praise from Georgia’s staid political establishment: term limits. Jackson is leaning in to his identity as an outsider who wants to break the elite’s “grip” on the state’s political machine.

🌳 The AJC’s Bill Torpy weighs in on an evergreen concern: Atlanta’s vanishing tree canopy.

‘WHY LOOK, SHILA! NEW GENTLEMEN CALLERS!’

Zephyr (left) and Balor in their new home. (Ben Gray/AJC)

The Georgia Aquarium’s two newest beluga whales are safe and sound in Atlanta after being rescued from a shuttered aquatic park in Canada.

• Ten-year-old Balor and 7-year-old Zephyr, both males, were flown on a cargo plane from Marineland aquatic park in Ontario as part of a multi-institution rescue effort.
• The two dashing newcomers have since been regaling the Georgia Aquarium’s existing belugas, a quartet of females*, with tales of their peregrinations. At least, that’s what I like to imagine.
• “They are integrating already with the females,” Jason Jones, the aquarium’s senior curator of animal well-being, told the AJC. “We’re really happy.”

🐟 QUIZ TIME: About how many pounds of fish do each of these strapping, 1,100-lb lads eat per day? Answer at the bottom.

🐋 READ MORE: How aquarium pros are helping the whales acclimate

*Named Maple, Shila, Qinu and Whisper

NEWS BITES

The Falcons had their first preseason game and it was not good

As Ken Sugiura writes, “Maybe by winter we’ll be able to file this one under ‘a decent team just happened to play like it had just woken up from a pleasant nap.’” Hope springs eternal, Ken.

… but, Atlanta United won in its first home game since May

The World Cup must have left behind some good soccer vibes.

Athens is cleaning its all-marble Olympic stadium for the first time in more than a century

Didn’t know Sanford Stadium was that old (this is a JOKE).

We found the best banana pudding in Atlanta